Letter to the Editor From Representative Steve Cohen

"The heart that beats in my chest today is the same one that quickened when, at 11 years old, I stood with my father along Union Avenue waiting to catch a glimpse of John F. Kennedy-the young senator from Massachusetts running for president. The photograph I snapped that day-now framed on my office wall in Washington-isn't sharp, but the moment was. It captured something lasting: a call to public service that has guided me ever since."

"By the time I was my challenger's age, I was serving on the Shelby County Commission and had assembled a bipartisan coalition to fund and build a charity hospital then called The MED, now called Regional One. This facility has not only saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Memphis-overwhelmingly the lives of the poorest people in our community-but it also serves as a destination point for trauma patients throughout the Mid-South."

Congressman rejects a favorable portrayal of his primary opponent and emphasizes decades-long commitment to progressive causes and public service. He recalls being inspired at eleven by John F. Kennedy and keeping a photograph of that moment in his Washington office. He describes lifelong progressivism as core to his identity. By his challenger's age he served on the Shelby County Commission and assembled a bipartisan coalition to fund and build The MED, now Regional One. He says the facility has saved hundreds of thousands of lives—mostly among the poorest in Memphis—and serves as a regional trauma destination. He served in the Tennessee State Senate as a persistent voice for civil rights, women's rights, economic justice, and equality.

Read at The Nation